Israeli police fail to investigate crimes committed by settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to a new report by Yesh Din published Tuesday. The report followed 781 cases of Israeli violence against Palestinians from 2005 to March 2012, out of which 280 involved in violence. In addition, it said 44 percent (342 cases) were property damage issues, 15% (116 cases) involved land seizure and another 5% (43 cases) were miscellaneous.
According to Yesh Din’s annual datasheet summarizing its monitoring hundreds of investigations by the “Samaria and Judea” (SJ – the occupied West Bank) police district into crimes committed against Palestinians, the police fail to investigate ideological crimes committed by Israelis against Palestinians. The data shows that 91% of investigations into crimes committed by Israelis against Palestinians and their property are closed without indictments being served and 84% of the investigation files are closed because of the investigators’ failure to locate suspects and evidence.
A group of settlers attacked the mosque of the West Bank Palestinian village of Beit Fajar, on October 2010. The group of Israeli settlers broke into the mosque and sat it on fire, damaging prayer rugs and a large number of copies of the Quran, as well as spraying anti-Arab graffiti on the walls. (Photo: Activestills)
The findings reveal that out of 781 investigations conducted by the SJ police district (from 2005 to March 2012), following complaints by Palestinian civilians in the West Bank of crimes committed by Israeli civilians against them and their property, less than 9% resulted in indictments being served. The vast majority of investigation files – more than 84% – were closed due to circumstances that indicate a failure of the investigation: most, following police failure to locate the criminals or collect sufficient evidence for prosecution, and some due to the loss of complaints and the apparently unjustified closure of investigation files on grounds of “lack of criminal culpability.”
The failure rate is particularly high in the investigation of property crimes (such as arson, damage to property or crops, damage to trees, theft of agricultural produce etc.). Indictments were served in less than 3% of these cases. 95% of these files were closed in circumstances that indicate investigative failure.
Yesh Din explains that the findings mean the State of Israel is failing to meets its obligation to maintain an effective law enforcement system upon Israeli civilians who commit ideological crimes – some very serious – against Palestinian civilians in areas subject to its military occupation.
According to Ziv Stahl of Yesh Din’s research department, “every month, Yesh Din volunteers collect the testimonies of dozens of Palestinian victims of violence, threats, damage to crops and property, invasion of their land and so on. These crimes are especially serious because they are ideologically motivated: their purpose is to drive the Palestinian residents away from their land or their homes, to intimidate or to influence the policy of the government of Israel. The data shows that the Israel Police continues to fail to identify the criminals and prosecute them.”
Every year, Yesh Din publishes data indicating a continuous failure of law enforcement upon Israeli civilians who commit crimes against Palestinian residents of the territories. The data is published as part of a long-term project by the organization whose purpose is to exhaust law enforcement procedures against Israelis involved in criminal offenses against Palestinian civilians and their property in the occupied territories. Since 2005, Yesh Din has represented Palestinian victims of crimes by Israelis before the law enforcement authorities. This enables the organization to monitor the results of the investigations by the SJ district.
Yesh Din annual report (11 pages, in English)
